Tell us something.: I restore 19th century flutes, specializing in Rudall & Rose, and early American flutes. I occasionally make new flutes. Been at it for about 15 years.
A Indian friend sent these bansuri flutes over to me. One is a E and the other is a D flute. I think the key is measuredby the third tone hole? Nice tone, but the stretch is killer! I can cover the holes when I do a exagerated pipers grip. It is a good stretching exersise!
There is a seventh hole down farther on the E flute, I am not expected to cover that also am I? I would think it is humanly impossible!
"I love the flute because it's the one instrument in the world where you can feel your own breath. I can feel my breath with my fingers. It's as if I'm speaking from my soul..."
Michael Flatley
Jon, yes, you are supposed to cover the seventh hole way down near the end of the flute, but you don't use your eleventh finger to do it, at least, I don't. Sitting in a classical Indian cross-legged position, you cover the seventh hole with your leg, I kid you not. Try doing it. It really isn't that hard. The resulting tone will be a half-tone lower than with the 6 finger holes covered. My Harsh Wardhan bansuri flute is made this way, and I have made a couple of flutes for Talasiga in which he requested a 7th vent hole.
Tell us something.: I restore 19th century flutes, specializing in Rudall & Rose, and early American flutes. I occasionally make new flutes. Been at it for about 15 years.
Hoovorff wrote:Re: the flute on the left: The stretch on the flute between holes 5 and 6 is sure to create wrist problems, unless you have a monster reach!
Actually with the pipers grip stretched to the max is is reachable. It doesn't effect the wrist much. the hole spacing between R2-R3 is 2.4"!
That is interesting about covering the last hole that way, I haven't been able to sit in lotus position for a number of years as I have bad knees, so maybe I will use Blu tack to fill that hole and see how it sounds...
"I love the flute because it's the one instrument in the world where you can feel your own breath. I can feel my breath with my fingers. It's as if I'm speaking from my soul..."
Michael Flatley
HAH! You think that's bad, you ought to see the "Bass C" that a well-meaning friend gave me. Needless to say, it's been "delegated as decor" in my music room.
But intriguing, Doug -- I've wondered what jolly giant would play that flute on more than a few occasions. So I'll try the leg thing if I can get my sausage limbs to fold like that.
So. Wrecked hand or a dislocated hip .... hmmmmm. Yoga flute!
Deja Fu: The sense that somewhere, somehow, you've been kicked in the head exactly like this before.
Tell us something.: I restore 19th century flutes, specializing in Rudall & Rose, and early American flutes. I occasionally make new flutes. Been at it for about 15 years.
Cathy Wilde wrote:HAH! You think that's bad, you ought to see the "Bass C" that a well-meaning friend gave me. Needless to say, it's been "delegated as decor" in my music room.
But intriguing, Doug -- I've wondered what jolly giant would play that flute on more than a few occasions. So I'll try the leg thing if I can get my sausage limbs to fold like that.
So. Wrecked hand or a dislocated hip .... hmmmmm. Yoga flute!
This a tonic E it is in the key of B, so my flute is bigger then your flute! I saw a master Bansuri Player last summer, forgot his name, he was a little guy with little sausage fingers, but he was playing one of these flutes. With a flat pipers grip it is doable. I put blu tack on the bottom hole and it has a real nice deep reedy tone, kind of reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock Movies, like the rear window, when the killer is sneaking up...
"I love the flute because it's the one instrument in the world where you can feel your own breath. I can feel my breath with my fingers. It's as if I'm speaking from my soul..."
Michael Flatley
The only way I can play mine is with a piper's sort of grip myself, but it's still a nightmare. I might try that blu-tack thing .... although shoot, I can't even play the flutes I play every day very well, so I don't know if I should tackle yet another But that's cool. What a moose! And thanks for the clarification. Something new every day!
Deja Fu: The sense that somewhere, somehow, you've been kicked in the head exactly like this before.
I have a couple of those, in A and G bass--I think as we measure them (ie, 6th hole). They have a gorgeous hooty tone, but the stretches are brutal. I suppose if I worked at it and used piper's grip it wouldn't be so bad, but...
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
Tell us something.: I restore 19th century flutes, specializing in Rudall & Rose, and early American flutes. I occasionally make new flutes. Been at it for about 15 years.
s1m0n wrote:I have a couple of those, in A and G bass--I think as we measure them (ie, 6th hole). They have a gorgeous hooty tone, but the stretches are brutal. I suppose if I worked at it and used piper's grip it wouldn't be so bad, but...
The tonic of the bansuri is the note sounded when 3 finger holes are closed. 6 holes closed determines the key. The same flute may be referred to by either its tonic or key. This is an E Tonic and in the key of B.
(I get a couple of Bansuri flutes an now i am an expert...)
"I love the flute because it's the one instrument in the world where you can feel your own breath. I can feel my breath with my fingers. It's as if I'm speaking from my soul..."
Michael Flatley
My Harsh Wardhan bansuri is a G tonic (3 holes closed) and is in the key of D (6 holes covered). The 7th hole is normally a vent hole, much as the two nonfingered vent holes on the 8-hole Irish flute. However, if you cover the 7th hole with your leg, you will get a Db or C#, whichever you prefer. Of course, if you cover the 7th hole with tape, with all finger holes covered you will be able to play the Db, but if you try to play the flute this way, the flute will then be out of tune with itself.
There has been a thread recently about what to look for in a well-made flute. A few of the writers thought that perfectly round finger holes was a characteristic of a well-made flute. I can tell you that bansuri flute makers have a different opinion. The very best bansuri flutes have oval rather than circular finger holes, if I am not mistaken, mainly because oval holes are more comfortable to cover, are easier to half-hole, and allow for more nuance in pitch.
Jon C, you don't have to sit in a lotus position to cover that underhole. Any crossledgged or other sitting position is OK. You lower the flute when you need to. Therefore that note is mostly only played in very slow movements of the performance.
You can also do it standing up if you are accompanying a buxom singer.
Holy Toledo, what a stretch. I think I'd take sticky putty, place it over the holes, and pull it off as the note requires. Sure, it'd take me an hour to play one song, but that's the only way I could do it with my teeny mitts.
Dave
Doug_Tipple wrote:The very best bansuri flutes have oval rather than circular finger holes, if I am not mistaken, mainly because oval holes are more comfortable to cover, are easier to half-hole, and allow for more nuance in pitch.
Does that hole shape facilitate meendi? (I hope I have the right term)
As for the 7th hole, the Scottish pipe chanters have 2 extra tone holes that function like the extra holes on Irish flutes. A fun atonal parlour trick that can be done while seated is to close those 2 holes with the knees while playing the bottom note. You do have to be careful if you do this in a kilt.
Tell us something.: I restore 19th century flutes, specializing in Rudall & Rose, and early American flutes. I occasionally make new flutes. Been at it for about 15 years.
Dave Parkhurst wrote:Holy Toledo, what a stretch. I think I'd take sticky putty, place it over the holes, and pull it off as the note requires. Sure, it'd take me an hour to play one song, but that's the only way I could do it with my teeny mitts.
Dave
Hi Dave,
I have small hands, but if you stretch your fingers out flat you can cover the holes, the only pressure is on the inside of your thumbs. I would like to see the bamboo that this was made from, single node @28" long. That is fast growing stuff!
Talasige, nice to hear your input, I was just kidding about the lotus posture, but I even have trouble with the "easy pose" some yogi...
I was tols that this was the "best quality" that came from kolkata(Calcutta) a Swami friend went there and picked them out for me.
"I love the flute because it's the one instrument in the world where you can feel your own breath. I can feel my breath with my fingers. It's as if I'm speaking from my soul..."
Michael Flatley
I can cover the holes when I do a exagerated pipers grip. It is a good stretching exersise!
I saw a master Bansuri Player last summer, forgot his name, he was a little guy with little sausage fingers, but he was playing one of these flutes. With a flat pipers grip it is doable. I put blu tack on the bottom hole and it has a real nice deep reedy tone, kind of reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock Movies, like the rear window, when the killer is sneaking up... 
But that's cool. What a moose! And thanks for the clarification. Something new every day! 
